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Dua Lipa has been named the biggest-selling female artist of 2018, the only woman to feature in the top 10 artist albums of the year.

End-of-year figures released by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) showed the British singer’s self-titled debut album – which was released in June 2017 – was the ninth top-selling record of 2018.

She also had the second most-streamed song of the year, One Kiss, with Calvin Harris, as well as the ninth most-streamed song, IDGAF.

Only four of the top 20 albums were released by women, with Jess Glynne’s Always In Between at number 14, Ariana Grande’s Sweetener at 16 and Paloma Faith’s The Architect at 17.

BPI’s data showed that the official soundtrack to The Greatest Showman, which was released in December 2017, was the number one album of the year, while George Ezra’s Staying At Tamara’s – which came second on the list – was the most successful album to be released in 2018 overall.

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Ezra, whose album was released in March 2018, outsold Ed Sheeran’s Divide, which was released in March 2017 but was the third most popular record of 2018.

Ezra’s single Shotgun was the third most-streamed of the past 12 months.

George Ezra performs in 2018 (Picture: Getty)

The BPI said British artists made up half of the top 20 albums but the majority of the biggest-selling artist albums of the year were by male artists, with the likes of Drake, Post Malone, Michael Buble and Eminem among the most successful.

The film soundtracks for Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, A Star Is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody were also in the top 20 on the artist albums chart, as well as Gold – Greatest Hits by Abba, fuelled by a boost from the Mamma Mia! sequel.

The BPI found that the recording industry in the UK grew for the fourth consecutive year in terms of sales.

A total of 142.9 million albums or their equivalent were streamed, purchased on various formats or downloaded in 2018, equating to an estimated retail value of £1.33 billion and a 5.7% rise year-on-year.

Streaming has also been found to account for nearly two-thirds (63.6%) of music consumption in the UK, having increased by five times in five years.

Streaming accounted for just 12.6% of music consumption in 2014.

CD sales now only account for 22.4% of sales, compared with 47.5% in 2014, but the demand for vinyl has continued to increase, with just over four million LPs being sold in 2018, a rise of 1.6% from the previous year.